Japanese Leader Urges Firms to Boost Wages

By

Eleanor Warnock And

Toko Sekiguchi

Updated Feb. 12, 2013 7:36 p.m. ET

TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe added an unusual twist to his campaign to end deflation, calling for the country's biggest companies to raise employee wages in a bid to break the cycle of pessimism and falling expectations that have hampered economic growth.

Mr. Abe has, in his first few weeks in office, moved financial markets with aggressive use of the traditional tools of economic policy: leaning on the Bank of Japan to...